Court orders Indian students in heroin case detained for 9 days pending hearing of appeal by state

The High Court has detained two Indian engineering students who were acquitted of Sh1.3 billion heroin trafficking charges last week.

Prabhakara Nair Praveen and Vikas Balwan were acquitted last week by Chief Magistrate Julius Nang’ea who said the two were innocent intern students aboard a vessel and had no control of what was on the ship.

A letter from the Indian High Commission submitted to court in their defence indicates Praveen and Balwan attended Alpha Marine Service College in New Delhi and were interns at Park Mansion Ship Management Ltd in India. 

The State has opposed their acquittal and has appealed to the High Court to reinstate the charges.

Yesterday Lady Justice Mugure Thande ordered the detention of the two for nine days pending the hearing of an appeal by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) challenging their release.

The ruling by Thande came minutes after Chief Magistrate Julius Nang’ea declined the DPP’s application to detain the two students for 14 days pending a High Court appeal.

In his ruling, Mr Nang’ea said the DPP had no basis on the application for detention of acquitted persons.

“Whereas the State has the right to appeal pending acquittal, the DPP has no basis for the application. Therefore the court has set the accused at liberty and their passports released back to them,” ruled Nang’ea.

In his ruling last week, Nang’ea said the students were innocent and could not have been aware of the ship's cargo or participated in trafficking the drugs found on board.

Nang’ea ruled the students had no case to answer and placed the other suspects on their defense.